The Art of Disappearing

Naomi Shihab Nye has been writing and publishing poetry since the 1980s with her first book, Different Ways to Pray: Poems (Breitenbush Publications, 1980). Her work often focuses on the “quotidian”—celebrating and bringing attention to everyday activities and objects. “The Art of Disappearing” is a prime example of a message that appears over and over in her poetry, especially in poems like “Famous,” in which she writes that she wants to be famous to “sticky children” (Line 17) rather than being famous to a large crowd. Much of her work focuses on appreciating small moments, having connections with people on a deeper level, and eschewing the limelight in favor of a more anonymous life of everyday encounters.

In interviews, Shihab Nye also underscores how her poems are almost all inspired by everyday events, stories she hears from other people, or snatches of conversations around her. In her poem “Valentine for Earnest Mann,” for instance, she writes that “poems hide” (Line 9). She then gives an example of a man who gave his wife two skunks for Valentine’s Day presents because he thought they had beautiful eyes. She concludes that poems were “hiding” in the eyes of the skunks, but because the man saw their beauty they came out for him.